Athrun Zala
'Athrun Zala '''is the deuteragonist of ''Gundam SEED: Aeon and Gundam SEED Destiny: Aeon. He is Kira Yamato's best friend and serves as Shinn Asuka's mentor throughout Destiny. Personality and Capabilities Athrun is described as a quiet, reserved, and often a benevolent individual. Athrun is shown to have a firm belief that if soldiers follow their orders then eventually the war will end with success. While good at following orders, Athrun has trouble acting as a team leader due to his compassionate outlook in life. In Destiny, Athrun's personality and ideals does not change much but he does mature in some respects especially when he rejoins ZAFT at the personal behest of Gilbert Durandal. Due to his status as a hero to the PLANT colonies and ZAFT ace pilot, he somehow instinctively portrays a very professional aura and doesn't hesitate when giving orders that can come off as being harsh or demanding. Before becoming a full-fledged pilot, Athrun had under-went training at the ZAFT military academy, it was there that he showed natural talent as a soldier, ranking 1st in mobile suit piloting, hand-to-hand combat and knife-fighting, even going as far as to beat the renowned knife-fighting instructor Fred of the Knife. With his natural experience as a pilot and high scores at the academy. His fighting style is not visibly limited in style, his mobile suits, Aegis the, Justice, including the nuclear jammed Justice RE and later the Infinite Justice, are all well-rounded ranged and close-combat type mobile suits that are always equipt with sufficient firepower and a minimum of two beam sabers. Cosmic Era 71 Cosmic Era 73 After the war, Athrun and the other surviving members of the Le Creuset team, Yzak Joule, Nicol Amalfi and Dearka Elsman are tried for their actions. They were ably defended by Gilbert Durandal. Athrun leaves ZAFT and moves to the Orb Union, living under the pseudonym Alex Dino. He is present in the PLANT as Cagalli's aide and bodyguard, and was involved in the fighting to retake the stolen mobile suits. Break the World He later joins the ZAFT battleship, Minerva, and fights against the terrorists in the Junius Seven Colony Drop alongside Shinn Asuka and former teammates Nicol, Yzak and Dearka. Aboard the Minerva, he is unmasked by Gilbert, the Chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council who had joined the Minerva in its pursuit of the mobile suit thieves. Athrun nearly dies during this battle, but is rescued by Shinn. Return to ZAFT Athrun meets with Chairman Durandal, who convinces him to use his power to keep the world on the right path. Athrun re-enlists in ZAFT, and Durandal appoints him a member of the elite special forces, FAITH. Athrun is assigned the new mobile suit ZGMF-X09RE Justice Gundam RE, and given total freedom of action. He returns to Earth and joins the Minerva in the battle against the Earth Alliance, now allied with Orb. Athrun becomes commander of the Minerva's mobile suit pilots Rey Za Burrel, Lunamaria Hawke, and Shinn. Athrun is somewhat of a mentor to Shinn, though the two do not always get along well. Lunamaria informs him that Cagalli, has almost gone through with an arranged marriage to Yuna Roma Seiran, but was kidnapped before the ceremony was completed. Athrun finds out he is still considered engaged to Lacus Clyne, whose role has been taken by Meer Campbell, a singer who is impersonating Lacus for political reasons, and Meer pursues him rather aggressively. Battle of Dardanelles Athrun is involved in the Battle of Gulnahan and Dardanelles, where he meets new friend, Heine Westenfluss and one annoying one in Rusty Mackenzie, though Athrun knew the latter since his early days in ZAFT. After Dardanelles, he bumps into Miriallia Haw, who arranges a secret meeting for him with Cagalli and Kira Yamato. Lunamaria spies on this meeting under orders from Captain Talia Gladys. Athrun and the others disagree strongly on many points. He tells Cagalli that if she wants Orb to stop fighting against ZAFT, she needs to return to Orb and get them to end their ties to the Earth Alliance. In return, Athrun is told that Coordinators have attempted to assassinate the real Lacus, which means Kira and the others do not trust Chairman Durandal. Much is still unresolved after he leaves. Battle of Berlin Later on, Yzak, Nicol and Dearka would be assigned to the Minerva as escorts. They were presented FAITH badges by the Chairman, and their first order was to guard the Minerva and protect it from enemies until it reaches Gibraltar. But then, a battle breaks out on the outskirts of Germany, which overwhelms the entire ship until the Archangel intervenes again. The Freedom would defeat the Justice and damage it beyond repair during the battle, because Kira is angry over what he thinks is Athrun's indifference to Cagalli's emotional distress.. After their battle, Athrun would be brought back to the Minerva, and the Destroy Gundam appears. As the gigantic mobile suit targets and fires at the Freedom, Athrun's friend, Heine takes the shot for Kira, which ended up with his GOUF Ignited exploding, killing its pilot. Eve of Chaos Not long after watching the epic battle between Shinn and Kira during Operation Angel Down, resulting in the destruction of the Freedom and the supposed sinking of the Archangel by the Minerva. Disgruntled by Shinn's arrogance on defeating the Freedom and killing Kira, Athrun asks the Chairman why the Archangel and Kira were ordered to be shot down. The Chairman replies that the ship has refused to give their intentions and was only bringing confusion to the battlefield. His state of mind and attitude dissatisfied Durandal, and later on, he and Rey frame Athrun using the pictures Lunamaria had taken when Athrun met with Kira. Shinn and Meer both inform him of what Durandal and Rey planned. But, rather than coming up with a sly answer to them, Athrun flees as he refuses to be Durandal's puppet. Athrun takes refuge in the room of Minerva CIC officer and gifted hacker, Meyrin. With her help, Athrun, with Meyrin, escape from ZAFT's Gibraltar Base in the ZGMF-X23S Saviour Gundam, but is confronted by Shinn in the ZGMF-X42R Destiny Gundam and Rey in the ZGMF-X66R Legend Gundam. Soon after, Shinn finds his resolve and protects Athrun, defecting with him in the process. SEED of the Sky After suffering an assault from Rey, the three defected ZAFT Soldiers were aided by Ledonir Kisaka and Rusty Mackinzie, soldiers of ORB. Athrun was brought into ORB after getting major injuries which required close watch. Having heard that the Eternal was found by ZAFT, he makes Shinn contact the bridge of the Archangel and proceeds to pressure Kira to do something and save Lacus. Ultimately, his best friend thanks him and uses the Strike Rouge to go to space.